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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24493213">Resurrection: A Breath of The Wild Tale</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TLWillow/pseuds/TLWillow'>TLWillow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda &amp; Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>All the Sheikah are Named After Fruit, Alternate Universe, Breath of the Wild Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence, Cuccos (Legend of Zelda), DLC Spoilers, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Her Cousin Cara Too, Kleptomania, Link (Legend of Zelda) is a Dork, Link Does What He Wants, Link is a Fucking Gremlin Child, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paya Does Her Best, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Sheikah Culture, Sheikah Slate, Sheikah Slate Shenanigans, Slow Build, Slow Burn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:55:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24493213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TLWillow/pseuds/TLWillow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For as long as the divine trinity have been in endless war with one another, the Shadow Folk have been present. They lay in wait for millennia, surviving broken ties and constant betrayal. The noble line stays true to their original purpose, ever in Hylia's service even as they fade away into obscurity.</p>
<p>Now, at the very end, events have aligned and they are needed once more, and in the service of their princess they shall act in the final hour.</p>
<p>..if only Hylia's Chosen would stay on course and stop getting himself nearly killed at every turn.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Link &amp; Original Characters, Link &amp; Paya (Legend of Zelda), Link &amp; Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue: Resurrection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This has been in my head for a while now, so I've chosen to act on it. </p>
<p>Perhaps indulging my muse will get the creative juices flowing!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>"The flow of time is always cruel. It's speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it..."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>— Sheik (Ocarina of Time)</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>At the Ruins of Hyrule Castle</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a rare night in Hyrule when the ruins of what was once Hyrule’s Castle Town were all but silent. There was no breeze, and no monsters were roaming. Even the active Guardians, ever vigilant for their Master’s next victim, stood still in a perfunctory sort of patience, draping themselves in a facade of the decay that had claimed their countless counterparts across the country. The only signs of life were two figures that stood atop a crumbling watchtower: a Yiga footsoldier, recognizable by the blood red attire and bone white mask that housed the clan’s inverted eye, and a female draped in a white cloak, utterly alone in surveillance of their surroundings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Truly, it was a dreadful sight. The former capital of the most magnificent kingdom in Hyrule’s history, rotting away in the dead of night. Not a sound could be heard save for the dreadful squelching of the pools of Ganon’s Malice, eating away at the stone like acid on skin and filling the air with sickly, heavy miasma as it spread ever so slowly across the continent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"This is the exact spot where the Master wants us to wait?" asked the girl, her voice muffled but startlingly young.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Isn't that what I told you? Open your ears! Right by one of those ugly-ass shrines on the west side." The footsoldier scratched at his chin under his mask. "Stupid brat asking stupid questions." He shivered when a stray Stal, a monstrous skeleton resurrected from the earth, ambled its way through the night, mindlessly passing them and breathing its false breath. "Goddesses above,” the footsoldier muttered under his breath, rubbing his arm as if accosted by a chill. “This place gives me the creeps!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, the girl’s head swiveled to face her associate, revealing the cloth that masked her face; a white sheet adorned with the clan’s symbol. "You shouldn't have said that."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Eh? Just who do you think you're talking to?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What was that now?” a voice asked cheerfully from the dark, though his jovial manner dripped with dangerous undertones. “By the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Goddesses,</span>
  </em>
  <span> you say?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The soldier whirled around and brandished his weapon; a vicious sickle that glinted dangerously in the moonlight. Yet when he laid eyes on the figure before him he jumped in fright, immediately shielding himself with an arm. "M-m-master </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kohga!" </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The two bowed in prostration, the girl with considerably better grace than the footsoldier. The man they honored, however, simply stroked the area where a beard would be were it not covered by an ornate version of the Yiga mask, complete with fiery horns and a topknot. His somewhat comical posture was made worse by his rotund, protruding belly and stubby legs, but this brought no mirth to his subordinates.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I came on by, came on down here, you see. I thought we’d have a stroll through Castle Town to get the job done. A real treat!” He leaned forward, putting his face close to the soldier’s, which shook along with the rest of him. “I even invited you! We’ve got such an important task ahead, you know? But you went and said something so horrible, it’s just churning my insides! You didn’t really mean it.” Master Kohga bent even lower, twisting his body around to an almost inhuman degree, surprisingly flexible for a person of his stature.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>"Did you?"</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span> “N-no, of course not, I-I--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You would blaspheme so foolheartedly, here, on this hallowed ground?” Master Kohga whipped upright like a reed and gestured grandiosely around towards the ruins. “Here you see the proof of our Lord Ganon’s blessings.” He stepped forward, each impact on the stone echoing into the night, and for each one the footsoldier retreated by a nervous half-step, not daring to lift his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The ruin,” Kohga hissed. “The havoc and destruction with which he answered our prayers for retribution against the wretched Kingdom that would turn against us, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>you.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The Yiga clansman’s hand went to his hip where his sickle rested, gripping it for dear life when his back hit the wall behind him. A hand reached out and gently caressed his face under his mask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You,” Kohga softly whispered, “would sully this place with such a heathen’s call?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please!” the soldier gasped. “I meant nothing by it, I swear, please, don’t—!” There was a flash of movement, and the soldier braced himself for the coming death blow...but none arrived. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, when he looked up, he bore witness to Master Kohga laughing uproariously, from deep in his belly - so deep, it almost seemed to be laughing with him. “Me?” the elder man chortled. “Of course not, goodness, no! I’d never bring harm to a soldier of the Yiga!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“M-master!” the soldier cried in relief. “I—” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Master Kohga snapped his fingers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Useless paper talismans drifted to the floor, floating aimlessly as the footsoldier’s body hit the ground in an unceremonious </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump</span>
  </em>
  <span>, a testament to his last attempt to survive. Blood pooled beneath his body and silently stained the ground beneath him, slowly dripping through the cracks in the cobblestone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Master Kohga gave a jovial thumbs up. “That’s wonderful, you’ve gotten much better.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl sheathed her weapon underneath her cloak, the cloth unmarred by blood. “Ganon's name I invoke. In his name I shed blood, his resurrection be glorious,” she intoned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes yes, good good. Let’s be on our way, darling dear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made her way through the ruins, headed straight towards the castle. Kohga marched quite animatedly while the girl followed sedately behind him, the white of her cloak making her appear akin to a wraith gliding upon the ground, haunting the jovial man’s steps. Nothing stood in their path, and they arrived all the faster for it. When they reached the gates, a slithering, squelching mass of miasmic malice flowed before them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’ll let you get to it then.” Master Kohga saluted and shimmered out of sight, though his voice echoed in the air. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll be watching, so make it a good show!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, she stood still, assessing. Then she began to shed her robes. Her mask was the first to go, revealing her face: smooth, olive skin, rosy cheeks and ruby red eyes. Her hood came next, and a long, flowing ponytail spilled forth, the ivory color gleaming like spun silver in the moonlight, all the way down to between her shoulders. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She continued until she was bare, and began to recite low chants under her breath in a language dating back millenia, all but forgotten now. The miasma thickened, the air grew colder, and the light of the moon in the sky became a dark, bloody crimson, bathing the land in a poisonous glow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the moon reached its peak in the sky, she stepped into the substance and submerged, disappearing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The eyes of the Guardians came alight in red, and walked the grounds once more. The cacophony of shrieking monsters long dead returning to flesh shattered the quiet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere unseen, a sinister laugh echoed through the night.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>Across Hyrule Field, in the Center, Where it Began</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>A shining beacon of gold pierced the darkness</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Link...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Link.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Open your eyes.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Wake up, Link.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Blue eyes shot open. Water sloshed around him as he sat upright and emerged from the stone pool, a deep breath filling his lungs with air.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Resurgence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The land of Hyrule is forever changed.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Together with the Hero [of Time], the awakened ones will bind the evil and return the light of peace to the world...</em>
</p><p>
  <em>-Sheik (Ocarina of Time)</em>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>In a country so overrun by the wilderness like Hyrule, one could find a place of solitude even when adjacent to civilization. </p><p>It was in one such place, high above Kakariko Village in the mountainous spires that secluded it, where Cara found herself yet again. The breeze chased away the silence, tousling stray strands of silvery hair from its neat updo. Blades of grass whispered and danced in the wind as she brought her knees close to her chest. Up here, in every direction, she could see the vast expanse of the land, from the red, smoking crater of Death Mountain, to the crumbling ruins of Hyrule Castle and even beyond towards the mountain range where it snowed all year round. Up here, she was a world away from the sleepy village of her ancestors.</p><p>Ruby red eyes glanced next to her at the statue of a guardian frog. This one in particular stood watch over the village's oldest Eightfold Blade; a gleaming sword encased within a stone, its lofty status marked by the red and blue tassels that hang from the hilt, bearing a golden Eye of the Sheikah, their crest. </p><p>How she longed to wield it. </p><p>But it would remain there, Cara noted with slight bitterness as she returned her gaze to the wilds, trapped in that stone until its purpose was revealed. </p><p><em> “We are a people of substance.” </em> Her grandmother would say. <em> “Our duty is our purpose. That is what the sword represents. It lies in rest there as we lie in wait for the time when we must fulfill our duty.”  </em></p><p>Cara climbed the sprawling hills every morning, and all she had learned was how utterly <em> alone </em> she felt. Everyone was perfectly content with their lot in Kakariko. Happy to live out their days in seclusion, happy to ignore the world, happy to pretend like everyone was safe. Perfectly fine with limiting their daily lives to hunting for food, killing the stray Bokoblin that found its way too close, and generally living a life of solitude. </p><p>Couldn’t Grandmother <em> see? </em> The Sheikah were lost! They had no purpose left!</p><p>But they could again.</p><p><em> There are people out there. </em> Cara thought. <em> People of Hyrule alone and scared, and monsters roaming the country. No one is completely safe. </em>Cara buried her head in her arms and grabbed a fistful of grass in frustration. </p><p>
  <em>  And we just stay here. Hidden. Like it doesn't matter. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Like we don't exist.  </em>
</p><p>She stayed there for a while longer, but eventually she shook her head and gave her cheeks a few wake up slaps. Brooding never did any good. Cara stood and cast one last look at the sword in the stone, reaching a hand out if only to touch it…</p><p>She retracted her hand. Instead she sighed and bent her knees, preparing to spring into the leap that would take her down to the next spire and towards home.</p><p>Then the ground rumbled. </p><p>Immediately she lost her balance and fell over. </p><p>The earth beneath her shook and in her panic she desperately grabbed on tufts of grass to keep from sliding down the smooth surface of the stone toward injury, but to no avail. </p><p>
  <em> An earthquake? Is it Ganon? What's happening?  </em>
</p><p>The rumbling steadily grew stronger, the vibrations so strong she could feel them in her organs, in her skin, her very bones. Animals cried out, birds scattered into the sky in fear, and still it grew stronger at an alarming rate.</p><p>Panicking, she managed to scrounge up enough adrenaline to scramble to her feet and make her way toward the middle, but another violent tremor lurched her out of position and she fell again. This time, she held on to the sword to ground her, gripping the hilt with all her strength to keep her steady even as she fell to her knees.</p><p>Holding on for dear life Cara looked around her from her vantage point, searching wildly for the source of the tremors. Was the volcano erupting? A mountain crumbling? No, whatever this was, this couldn't be natural, it <em> had </em> to be Ganon come back-</p><p>To her utter shock, it was nothing she could have ever imagined. For out of the ground, countless spires erupted like bamboo shoots from the earth, gargantuan in comparison. She looked on in complete awe, speechless, breathless as the towers broke through the earth's crust, shattering the mountains, rising from the depths of the desert and towering higher, higher still towards the never-ending sky, their tips not quite brown and not quite gold, their bodies a bright sunset orange, eerily glowing even in the daylight. So large were these towers that they were enormous even in the distance, and Cara felt the smallest she'd ever been in the face of this event of ancient proportions. The rumbling it caused roared in her ears, encompassing her entire body, shaking her to her teeth.</p><p>After what had felt like an eternity of hopeless hope that she would survive, she finally found the inner strength to release her death grip on the Eightfold Blade. Shakily, she got to her feet, trembling terribly in absolute wonder before bonelessly sinking to her knees, gasping for air to fill her lungs.</p><p>Cara knew then, even knelt on the ground as she was, that something in the air had changed, something had shifted. </p><p>She knew, as the tremors abruptly ceased and she immediately leapt from the mountain down to the next, hopping toward the village below, that nothing would ever be the same again, for Hyrule's lost hero had finally woken up. </p><p>He was <em> back. </em></p><hr/><p>In her haste to spread the news, Cara had failed to notice the horror that came next.</p><p>For from the depths of Hyrule Castle, a black mist shrouded the area. Spikes rose forth from the earth, reminiscent of an ancient and terrible magic, and the cloudy form of a beast made of smoke and fire and blood burst from within the walls and windows, circling its territory menacingly and spreading a malignant wind that sickened all it touched.</p><p>For an eternity, all was silent. </p><p>And then it let out a primordial roar, announcing that it was not only the Hero that had awoken from slumber. </p><p>Down below from where Cara made her way, within her home, the Lady Impa's eyes narrowed, her aged and wrinkled face grim. </p><p>"The time has come."</p><hr/><p>Today was no longer a peaceful day.</p><p>Paya lay sprawled on her knees before the guardian frogs, polishing equipment scattered across the grass. Nearby, Cado and Dorian frantically tried wrangling both panicked cuccos and children, soothing their respecting charges as best they could, and all around the village the tribe hastily attempted to bring back any for of order after the earthquake that shook the mountains, and yet all came to a grinding halt when what could only be the Beast let out a thundering roar.</p><p>Her cousin had only just landed on the roof of their home with more aplomb than usual. That same roar was responsible for her slip and tumble down into the river, further startling Paya with a loud yelp and a rather impressive splash.</p><p>It wasn't long before Cara broke the surface, coughing and talking all at once </p><p>"Blah! Puh! Pah!"</p><p>"I know," Paya whispered, terrified. "We must inform Grandmother at once."</p><hr/><p>Link was tired. Tired of riddles, tired of cryptic warnings and elderly wisdom, and just plain sleepy. He wished the old man would just say what was on his mind.</p><p>Then again, he himself didn’t, so best not give in to hypocrisy. He nodded to himself sagely. Yeah. No big deal. He could do this. </p><p>With that he downed the burning pepper soup and dove rather gracefully headfirst into the freezing waters towards his next shrine. </p><p>This, he soon realized as he scrambled to the surface and back toward land like a wet dog, was a mistake. </p><p>He could go for some more elderly wisdom right about now.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Reviews are the lifeblood of the author. Leave one and fuel the flow for another day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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